The Indian Express              21.04.2013

BMC starts razing illegal floors at engg college

BMC Satruday started demolition of two illegal floors of Vasantdada Patil Engineering College at Sion-Chunabhatti.

The college has been built on collector's land. However, it did not have permissions to build the fifth and the sixth floor of the college. BMC had issued several notices to the college asking it to demolish the illegal structures or get them regularised. The college had then appealed to the collector and BMC to regularise the two floors, following which it was asked to pay a fine of Rs 18 crore. The college, however, refused to do so and moved court against the authorities. The court ruled against it and directed it to pay the fine or demolish the floors.

CAG had in 2012 mentioned in its report that the floors were illegal. It had recommended that the college pay a premium to the state government. The state government, however, failed to collect the premium.

A senior BMC official said, "The college does not have required construction certificate to build the fifth and sixth floors. We had sent them several notices and they could have taken necessary steps to regularise the floors but they failed to do so."

On Saturday, BMC initiated demolition of four rooms. This will affect about 1,200 engineering students who will soon be appearing for exams and about 300 diploma students whose exams are currently going on.

"We have begun the process already and will complete it irrespective of the exams. We had given prior information to the college about the demolition," added the BMC official.

The college has been embroiled in several controversies, including discrimination and malpractices. Allegations of the college flouting AICTE and Directorate of Technical Education norms have been levelled against the college and the management. College officials meanwhile were not available for comment and did not respond to calls.